Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You In Time
directed by Rob Sheridan
starring Trent Reznor
How many live shows can one man cram onto a DVD? The answer is one and half. All of Trent Reznor’s North American winter tour from 2006 and a handful of songs from the 2006 summer tour are captured on video for your viewing pleasure. This DVD is loaded with special extras, including the music videos for “The Hand that Feeds” and “Only” and some rehearsal footage from 2005. With all the special features, including subtitles, camera angle preferences, and lyric playback (on certain DVDs), this DVD is a must have for any NIN fan. The picture quality is amazing; on the big screen it looks like Trent Reznor is throwing a concert in your living room.
Beside You in Time features many of the old classics from the previous albums: “Hurt”, “Head like a Hole”, “March of the Pigs”, and many more, and oddly enough, less than half of the songs are from With Teeth. From the epileptic seizure-causing strobe lighting in “Closer” to the powerful and horrific images that serve as the backdrop for “Right Where It Belongs”, this concert puts And All That Could’ve Been to shame. Alessandro Cortini does an excellent job on keyboard and synths, and though the band has suffered the loss of drummer Jerome Dillon and guitarist Robin Finck, drummer Alex Carapetis never misses a beat and the new line-up with Aaron North and Jeordie White sounds fresher than ever. What makes this DVD great is the fluidity of the concert; instead of filming many arena and amphitheater shows, Trent chose to film just two arena shows and boy, does it make a difference. The feeling of being immersed in a dark concert arena helps to convey the perception that you’re actually there, and sadly, that feature was missing from And All That Could’ve Been. And in typical Trent fashion, the show ends with everyone smashing all their expensive instruments to bits.
